Volunteer Screening Blog

Tap into a group you might not have considered for volunteers: kids! Many parents and guardians are encouraging their children to volunteer during their downtime. More and more high schools require volunteer projects to graduate. Community giving days and National Volunteer Week focus attention on nonprofits. Is yours ready to take advantage of the increase in younger volunteers?

Nearly any charity can use the skills and time of young people. Certainly, if your nonprofit’s mission is driving seniors to appointments or delivering furniture to the needy, you won’t naturally think of using kids to perform your routine tasks. But thinking outside the box can spur ideas to involve kids. And the more ways you find to teach kids to give of themselves, the more ways your nonprofit can benefit.

What are some ways younger people can help? Basic tasks are best for the smallest children. Older kids can take on more responsibility. Here are a few ideas:

Sorting: most kids can handle sorting at an early age. Do you have donations from a clothing or coat drive sitting in piles? Ask kids to group them in whatever way you need: size, season, gender. Look around your offices and warehouse areas to see what needs organizaing, and have a kid sort it out for you.

Boxing: Kids can handle boxing up food from a food drive, supplies for the homeless shelter, or even stacks of paperwork for year-end storage.

Light cleaning: Put a broom in a child’s hand and let him or her go to it. Have a youngster clean the glass door to your facility. Hand a kid a dust cloth and ask them to wipe down the common areas of your office. Keep things safe: no lifting, ladders, or use of chemical cleaners. Kids might not do as thorough a job as you would like—but the idea is to encourage them to give of their time and use up some energy.

Serving clients: kids can bring smiles to your clientele and other volunteers, just by offering to help. Older kids can help serve meals; baking cookies is a great way to involve the little ones.

Reading: if your charity serves youth, perhaps you can arrange for older kids to read to groups of your kids. Conversely, older folks enjoy visits and reading from kids, too.

Everyone benefits when young people catch the volunteer bug. And just knowing they’ve helped out can be a huge boost to a kid’s confidence. You never know how many lives you can change by reaching out to younger volunteers!

Got volunteers? Great! Need volunteers? Here’s where to find them:

Word-of-mouth: the oldest way to communicate a need is still viable. Let your friends and family know that you need volunteers. Ask them to spread the word. You never know whom they will see in a day, so your perfect volunteer might just be waiting to hear that they are needed.

Social media: SM is the new word-of-mouth. Word spreads online much faster, to larger groups, than ever before. People are plugged in, online, and receiving information almost 24 hours a day. Why not take advantage of this accessible audience? Here are two ways to get on the SM bandwagon—and remember, it’s not a fad, and it’s not going away!

1. Facebook: If your nonprofit has not set up a Facebook page yet, put that on your to-do list. Facebook has 350 million users—in fact, if Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest in the world! You are missing out on a great deal of free exposure for your charity if it has no Facebook presence. Go here and get started!

2. Twitter: More and more nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are on twitter. Why? Because it is one of the easiest ways to keep in touch with your supporters, the community, and potential volunteers. Twitter can also help you connect to resources, other NPOs and tons of current, useful information—about politics, the economy, fundraising, management, and scores of more topics. Start a twitter account for your charity, search for people who have similar interests, find the twitter lists that your community members are on, and you’ll soon have a nice network of followers and resources delivered to your desktop all day, every day!

Craigslist: Craigslist is free. Craigslist is visited by hundreds or thousands of people in your community every day. A simple “volunteers needed” ad is all you need to reach out to potential volunteers. And if you’re conducting background screening on your volunteers, you won’t need to worry about the type of person who answers an online ad.

If your NPO needs new volunteers, these quick, easy and FREE tips just might be the best way to find them!

Remember to screen volunteers properly to protect your staff, other volunteers, and clients.